CityNews reports on the attempts to differentiate between Liberal and Conservative governance with regard to budget deficits and whether or not social spending will suffer.

“Michael Ignatieff says a Liberal government would pour money into child care and early childhood education, no matter how deep a financial hole the Tories may have dug the country into by then.”

“He did not say how the Liberals would reduce the deficit while hiking spending on daycare and early childhood education. He essentially suggested Canadians could trust Liberals to do both, given their “gold-plated record” of balancing the country’s books while investing in social justice measures during the 1990s.”

“However, a spokesman for Harper pointed out that Liberals did not actually do both in the 90s; they tamed the deficit in large part because they actually slashed transfers to the provinces for health care, post-secondary education and social assistance.”